December is full of holiday parties, and 27 of us enjoyed our annual “BIER
Christmas Dinner” at Brothers 2,. They have a great full Italian menu, so we
really enjoyed dinner, along with some great draught Craft Beers.Thanks, Fil & Domenic!

Rich should be getting our hops from Hop
Heaven soon.Thanks for leading this
for us, Rich.

Our annual BYO
mag. subscription list has been sent in.We get a ½ price deal, so for $16.50, you get
the 8 hard copy and 8 on-line editions.We
needed at least 10 people, and got 14.

Finger Lakes Beer
Trail Passport – Theresa came by and told us about it, $15 for each of
3 regions, $40 for all 3, good thru April this time.More just free beers, less of the 2 for 1,
better for individual visitors. She’s
going to put the list of deals on the web, soon.Thanks, Theresa!

We are doing a Brewery Bus Trip,
Jan 14th, going North to 5 breweries this time, 2 of them are on the
Passport.We have a full 30 passenger
bus.If you’re interested, and didn’t get
on yet, the waiting list is empty, and someone will likely want to back out, so
let me
know.

The
2017 AHA National Homebrewers Conference is June 14-17, in
Minneapolis.Don Zwach (our B’more BIER member)
and I will be there.It’s the best beer
event of the year, and you’ll at least see most of the Rock Stars of
Homebrewing, and meet a few of them.No
BIER booth this year, too far to ship kegs.Join us!

The
North was noted as a top 10 NY State Brewery by Will Cleveland, RochesterDemocrat and Chronicle, Beer
Columnist. I met Wil
at the North at the Big Bad Leather Daddy release, he’s a real knowledgeable,
fun guy.

James Dunn attended the Southern
Tier Farm Brewery Summit. James gave us a review of this informative
and exciting gathering, “With our agriculture and government support we now
know that New York State has grown into a major beer producing state. As of
September there are 280 breweries and 132 farm breweries. With all of the
tremendous growth I see some interest and opportunities for us craft and home
brewers.

There should be more chances for smaller hobby type hop and barley growers
to sell to buyers.

We will soon have access to much more information such as where the hop
farms and malt houses are. And where to easily find all the breweries and beer
sellers in the state.

Soon New York should have its own hop and barley varieties so we can make
New York style beer. And we will see more New York brewing ingredients for
sale.

If you want to learn more about the laws and what is happening here is the New York Brewers
Association.”He also mentioned
an upcoming TV series, Brewed In New York, should be
good.Source NY is a
free on-line market for all of us, new, just getting started, stay tuned for
more, here.Hartwick
College is developing a big Brewing Science program, expect to hear
much more on this, too.Thanks, James!

2016 was a great BIER year, BIER Western bus trip last January, Binghamton On Tap, Mom’s House Homebrew Fest, Doc’s
Homebrew started a 10% discount for BIER members, and gave us 28 lb. of pellet
hops. We get Happy Hour beer prices at Brothers 2, all the time, we got cheap
60L x-stal malt, and a bag of free Wheat Malt from
John at Water St. Brewing,NHC was in B’more,
with 6 of us attending, killed ‘em at Club Night, we
had our usual booth at the Madison Co.
Hop Fest, did Zoo Brew at Ross
Park Zoo, our local Breweries all had a very good year, there were many
festivals, where some of us helped, Sudsy
Brews & Fiery Foods was a great time, Adam got us Amoretti extract and concentrate samples, we put in an order for
Ted’s Hop Heaven hops, we had many
great samplings and technical discussions at our meetings, including brewing
water mineral & pH adjustment, there were several Tap Take-Overs at Food &
Fire, as well as Brothers 2,
we’re doing our annual BYO
subscription ½ price deal.And, we kept
our membership cost at $3.50/yr.Now, we
just need a new President of BIER.

Matt – Pale Ale, his own recipe, with Simcoe, Centennial and
Cascade hops.

Bernie – Pale Ale, the Brewer’s Best kit from our recent Learn
To Homebrew Day at Galaxy.Kevin, at
Doc’s provided this, and Bernie did most of the brewing, fermenting, and
bottling, with James Dunn’s help.It’s a
nice basic Pale Ale, good for starters.We’ll taste tested it with the students at Galaxy 12/16/16.

Dave King (2) – Wheat IPA, no where near the aroma of Rich’s, lacking in
malt flavor, too.The wheat proteins
seemed to grab the hop bitterness and aroma, it needs another dry hopping
(which it got by this time, and it helped a bunch).

Thanks to Fil, for a great 2016 at Brothers 2.Hoppy New
Year.Next meeting is January 11th,
back to our normal 7:30 meeting time. Please bring a beer to sample, and
label them.Recipes are appreciated.See you then!